


C U T !

by Anonymous



Series: Corpsekkuno by Anon [16]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29937255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Relationships: Corpse Husband & Sykkuno (Video Blogging RPF), Corpse Husband/Sykkuno (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: Corpsekkuno by Anon [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2054433
Comments: 26
Kudos: 233
Collections: Anonymous





	1. I Just Got Lucky (/Gen)

“Huh?” Sykkuno startled, and quickly finished swallowing his bite before saying, “Oh no, I just got lucky.” 

“Sykkuno!” Rae raged, and he blinked, mind taking a moment to catch up to what he had said. He hadn’t used that line in a while, despite the amusing reaction it could provoke, especially when in a lobby with Rae, Peter or Abe.

As if on queue, Peter chimed in, “I’ll spank you, Sykkuno! I’ll do it, baby!” 

“I’ll hold him down for you,” Abe snickered, while Sykkuno yelped, “Peter!” 

“Uhh,” Corpse’s low voice chimed in. “What?” His flat tone had Peter bursting into laughter. 

“Are you jealous?” Peter said, instead of backtracking like he normally might. “Don’t worry, Sykkuno knows to only say that line when he wants a spanking. Have you been a bad leaf boy?” 

“What the—” Sykkuno buried his face in his hands, relieved that he wasn’t streaming. “ _Peter!_ ”

“I did always say he’d like it too much,” Rae chimed in, sounding more amused than annoyed, now. 

Sykkuno startled, slamming his talk button. “What the heck, Rae! Can you guys not—I didn’t mean to—I just wanted to finish the round quickly so I could eat my taco, okay?!”

His voice was high and shrill by the end, and he winced into the sudden quiet before Toast’s laughter filled it.

“Go _off,_ Sykkuno,” Brooke cheered playfully. 

“Sykkunie!” Jack laughed out, “Oh my God, that was golden!”

“W-what in the—So, uh, you guys are spanking him?” Tina chimed in. 

“Rae’s right, he used to love it,” Abe chimed in. “I remember our Valorant days, when he would beg for one of us to—”

“ABE!” 

Abe broke down into laughter, Rae and Peter cackling like hyena’s with him.

“You guys are the worst,” Sykkuno groaned. “I didn’t even mean to—w-wait, they’ve never spanked me before!” he clarified desperately. 

“Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Toast chimed in. Just as Sykkuno’s small sigh of relief came through, he continued, “We aren’t here to expose what a kinky man Sykkuno is.” 

“Toast?” Sykkuno asked incredulously. “Okay, you know what, that was a good last run—”

“You didn’t call LG!” Rae argued. 

“So fun,” Sykkuno continued on in an oblivious, faux-cheerful tone, as if she had agreed, “but I have to eat my food before it gets too cold, so I’ll talk to you guys later!”

“Wait, Sykkuno I was just—”

“Sykkunie!”

“Sy...” 

“Sykk—”

“W-wait—”

There was the sound of Sykkuno leaving the discord call, and the server note read **Sykkuno has disconnected.**

“Well shit,” Peter said. 

“What was that?” Abe asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “He always used to brush that off.”

“I mean, he’s a lot more self-confident lately,” Rae offered dubiously. “Maybe it’s character development?”

“My lovely Sykkuno’s confident enough to storm out when we’re assholes?” Peter asked, sounding dumbstruck. “This changes a lot.”

Rae snorted.

“What was all that?” Jack pressed. 

“Oh, well, used to when Sykkuno did something insane in FPS, like ace or something, he’d say he just got lucky. And he said it so often all of us that used to play Valorant with him have a permanent twitch.”

“No spanking was ever involved,” Abe added, like that needed to be said. 

“Yeah, he always hid behind his OTV friends when I tried,” Peter whined playfully. “Shit, I hope he’s not actually pissed—I should message him…” 

“Already on it,” Rae chimed in, “but yeah, say you’re sorry. You’re lucky he’s been letting you get away with smooching and smelling him, ya perv.”

“Woah, guys, you know I would never,” Peter chuckled guiltily. “In Among Us, y’know, just our characters, just our characters. Sykkuno would never go for me irl.” 

“Yeah, we know,” Corpse said flatly. 

There was a pause, and then gasps and laughter filled the lobby. 

“Dayum, Corpse!” 

Well, that was one thing Sykkuno could do when none of them were streaming. Make a quick escape.


	2. The Smell Of You

“Oh,” came Sykkuno’s voice, quiet and a bit off. Tired, maybe? A moment later it came back louder, and several shades more chipper. “Hi Corpse! What are you up to?”

“Hi Sykkuno,” he returned, the smile that twisted his lips automatic. “Just on the bird app.”

“The bird—oh, Twitter? You sure are on there a lot.” 

Corpse chuckled a bit at the understatement. Sykkuno didn’t say it like it was a bad thing, just an observation. He had no clue the actual hours Corpse sank lurking. 

“Mmm,” he hummed agreeably. He clicked into a random DM, glancing at the familiar screencap before leaving it on read. He’d been tagged in the video a couple of hundred times since yesterday. He always received at least fifty mentions when Sykkuno talked about him during his stream unprompted.

He was still a little loose from the alcohol, though, and curious enough to ask. “So, uh, a little birdy told me that you wanted a bottle of the cologne I use?”

“Huh? Oh, y-yeah I guess I said that," Sykkuno agreed. "I wanted to know what you smell like," Sykkuno admitted casually, like this was a very normal thing. 

Corpse blinked at the icon of Sykkuno’s anime character, unsure what to say to that bit of bluntness. He hadn’t noticed a huge change in Sykkuno, which made sense since he didn’t even finish a full glass, but he was definitely a bit bolder than normal. Then again, sometimes he came out of left field saying the most outrageous things without alcohol backing him, so maybe this was just how he was.

Corpse didn’t fucking know. The man was a mystery. 

Apparently he paused for too long, because Sykkuno said, "Is that weird? I—I know what Toast smells like, and Peter mentioned earlier he had the same cologne so I know what he smells like—oh wait, actually Toast said he doesn't use that cologne, he just has it on his bathroom counter for some reason… huh… well I mean I’ve hugged Peter before, so I don’t  _ not _ know what he smells like...”

Corpse couldn’t help but laugh, not sure what he was listening to. “You, uh, like to smell people, Sy?”

“It sounds weird when you say it like that,” he said, voice going a bit quiet. “Smells are directly connected to memory and emotion, though, so I—I don’t know. I don’t have the best memory, so I like to know what my friends smell like, so if I ever lose them, there’s a chance that I would be reminded of them by a scent at some point. I’d be able to remember how happy they made me feel, and how lucky I was — that kinda stuff.”

Corpse’s throat felt tight.  _ Holy shit _ , this man. “And you want to know what  _ I _ smell like?” 

“Of course, Corpse. You’re my friend too. You’re important to me. You know, olfactory—er, smell memory, is actually stronger than visual memory. So just knowing what you smell like would still give me stronger associations in the future than knowing what you look like.”

“Wow,” Corpse said, fiddling with his eyepatch absently. Did that mean Sykkuno didn’t want to know what he looked like? “Is that—how do you know all that?”

“Oh. It’s kind of a long story?”

_ Ah. _ A personal story, by the sounds of it. Normally Corpse would let it go at that, but he  _ had _ been drinking, and he always wanted to know more about Sykkuno, so instead he said, “I’d like to know, if—if, I mean, you’re up for sharing.”

Sykkuno made a noise of, like,  _ surprise _ , like he didn’t think Corpse would be interested.  _ What in the ever loving fuck? How was it even possible that Sykkuno didn’t know that Corpse wanted to know just about everything about him? _

“No, it’s not, I mean, I don’t mind. Um, well a few years ago I rode the bus with this guy that smelled  _ really _ strongly of tobacco, and it reminded me of my grandpa. I was six when he died, and I remember, like,  _ nothing _ from back then, but I suddenly had this really—vivid, I guess, memory of sitting in his lap while he was reading the newspaper. And being really comfortable and at peace there, which was interesting, because I’ve always kinda thought he didn’t like me growing up? I mean, maybe he didn’t and was just putting up with babysitting me or something, but—it was just a really cool thing to experience. I mean, I saw photos of him growing up all the time, and it was like staring at a stranger. But remembering that really changed my impression of a man I never really got to know, and for the better too. So since then I guess I’ve been collecting smells—Oh Jesus, that sounds so weird. I just, I looked into the studies on smell versus visual memory, and—it’s really interesting, I think.”


	3. Put On The Fucking Cat Ears, Corpse!

Corpse followed Sykkuno from a few steps behind, watching him take in the room. The older man was smiling a bit, eyes lingering more on his dark sheets and anime posters than any of the fanart. Sykkuno made a little sound of surprise when he spotted something on the dresser. Corpse had carefully arranged the three pairs of cat ears in the corner, aligned so that they were standing upright, leaned against the wall. 

“You know, I think I have more than you do,” Sykkuno laughed softly. 

“Yeah,” Corpse agreed. “I’ve—gotten a few too, in my P.O. Box, but I think people have more of an incentive to send them to you since you’ve worn them.”

“Hmm… oh yeah, I guess you’ve said that none of them are for you…” Sykkuno said, tilting his head as he considered them. His fingers ran over the top of the pink pair gently. They were soft, just like the set he had been sent by the artist, if not a bit more fluffy. “Still, I kinda want to see it. I think you’d look very cute, Corpse,” he grinned without covering it, “especially in the pink.” 

Corpse’s cheeks flushed. He looked away from Sykkuno quickly, hand finding the back of his neck and rubbing it. It was like looking into a warped mirror—Sykkuno reacted the same way when someone complimented him, indirectly or not. 

His smile softened and he reached out, squeezing Corpse’s arm gently. It was surprisingly firm underneath his hand through the soft layer of hoodie. Corpse’s eyes snapped back to his, his mouth parting. 

“Don’t worry about it, though, you don’t have to do anything. Obviously. We can sit, if you want? Just chill on the sofa?”

Corpse’s uncovered eye widened a bit. 

“No, it’s—” he laughed, an awkward but still sweet sound that made Sykkuno smile automatically. “You—just, you embarrassed me a little. You actually—you say that stuff to peoples faces.”

Sykkuno blinked at him, hand dropping away. “Is it strange?” He asked, sounding genuinely curious. At least Corpse didn’t have to worry he had offended him. 

“Considering it’s been an age since the last time I received a compliment in real life,” Corpse agreed drolly, tipping Sykkuno a small smile to offset his flat tone. 

“That’s crazy,” Sykkuno said, and before he could continue Corpse burst into giggles, leaning over to hide his face in his own shoulder. 

“You guys are crazy!” He said breathlessly. Sykkuno laughed in turn, hand covering his mouth, and nudged Corpse with his foot. 

Corpse peered up at him with his peripheral vision, face still buried, and giggled again. “Sorry, sorry, it's habit.” He straightened out, and Sykkuno’s eyes darted over him, taking in the flush on his cheeks, the grin on his lips, the gleam in his eye. 

“Habit to mock me?” he asked through his hand, half-trying to hide the heat he could feel in his own cheeks, now. “Tha-that was a joke,” he added quickly, as if Corpse might not have gotten that. He did that a lot—double checked to make sure his words hadn’t hit wrong, hadn’t made anyone uncomfortable. Corpse understood that, related to it even. He spoke in a pretty even tone a lot of the time, and his words had been taken out of context a lot because of his deadpan sense of humor. 

“Alright,” he said after a moment. “I’ll wear a pair if you wear one?” 

Sykkuno tilted his head, looking surprised. “Really? You seriously don’t have to, Corpse, I just thought—”

“You don’t have to either,” Corpse affirmed. “But I will if you do.” 

Sykkuno stared at him for a moment, but looked away as soon as he started fidgeting, visibly uncomfortable under the scrutiny. “Okay, which pair do you want me to wear?” 

“Purple,” Corpse said immediately. The ones that were made for his character.

“Alright,” Sykkuno agreed easily. “Do you want to put them on for me?” 

Corpse’s heart skipped a beat. Whatever Sykkuno saw on his face when he turned made him look a little alarmed. “Uhh—so they aren’t crooked, I mean. I can do it!”

“No,” Corpse said, perhaps a little too quickly. “No, um. Bring them here.” 

God, the way his hands were shaking was so obvious when he accepted the cat ears from Sykkuno, but the other man didn’t say anything. Just met his gaze and smiled, small, warm and comforting. This fucking man.

Corpse cleared his throat and raised his hands. A small part of his brain whispered that he was finally getting to touch Sykkuno’s hair— _ not that he’d been thinking about it, or anything, it just looked so  _ fluffy—while the rest was focused on placing the ears as perfectly as possible.

He pulled the band out a bit so it wouldn't scrape the sides of Sykkuno’s scalp and lowered the ears onto his head. Strands of soft hair tickled his hand, a distracting sensation that had him swallowing, but he was done quickly. He glanced from Sykkuno’s face—very close—to the ears and adjusted them a bit more, so they were perfectly straight. Then he reached up, almost on automatic, and did a motion he’d seen Sykkuno do a hundred times before—brushed the hair from away from his left eye, over his right. 

_ Fuck. _ That was too weird, wasn’t it—?

“Oh—thanks, Corpse,” Sykkuno said simply, giving him a sweet smile as he quickly stepped back. “Hm… pink for you, then, or?”

“Why not,” Corpse said through a dry throat. “Will you…?”

“Huh? Oh, sure!” Sykkuno grabbed the pink cat ears and walked back to him quickly. His face was a little pink, and rather than staring at it—or his mouth, the tongue peeking out to quickly lick over dry lips—Corpse closed his eyes and took a breath.

Sykkuno smelled nice, of something both warm and faintly citric. From what Corpse remembered he didn’t actually use cologne, so it was just a combination of his natural scent, shampoo and soap. Had Sykkuno noticed what he smelled like, when he stood close? Did he remember his cologne today—had he sweated through it with nerves—did Corpse smell  _ bad? _

Something touching his head snapped him out of his spiraling thoughts. It felt like Sykkuno was adjusting his hair with one hand, gently pressing a part from one side to the other. “Hmm, there,” he murmured under his breath. The smell of cool mint hit Corpse’s nose. “Sorry, they would've sat a little uneven. Do you mind—” 

Sykkuno looking at him from this close was dangerous. He didn’t like people seeing his face from a distance, nevertheless under a foot away. 

“Um, it’s fine,” Corpse offered, too overwhelmed to really know what Sykkuno was asking. The other man flicked a smile at him before slipping on the ears just as carefully as Corpse had. When he finished and they settled onto his head, Sykkuno tilted his head and took a step back.

“Huh.” He met Corpse’s gaze and smiled. “Just like I thought, it’s really cute!” 


	4. Pack Away Those Blades

His phone beeped, indicating a new text. Sykkuno ignored it in favor of frowning down at his scotch tape dispenser, exasperation growing. Apparently he was just horrible at using these things. The packing tape had taken about three minutes to initially load up correctly, and now it had slipped out of place for the second time in as many minutes and was sticking to itself. 

His phone pinged again, and he sighed, swiping it open. The first message from Corpse is ‘?!’, which makes him smile a bit. He had snapped a picture of his knife collection before packing it up, and sent it over without a caption. The second message was... a video?

Sykkuno presses the play button curiously, turning up his volume expectantly. Only it isn’t a voice message that plays—instead there’s the sound of a blade cutting through air, because Corpse has sent him a video of him  _ flipping a knife _ . Not that Corpse is in frame, not really—just one hand with its distinctive chipped polish and rings. 

Sykkuno lets the video play through a few times before raising a brow. It was a basic open. Oh, really?

He smiles, setting the tape down in defeat and reopening the box. He plucks his favorite butterfly knife out - a black handle with an almost black blade - and glances around for a place to balance his phone.

It’s not hard to find a box to lean it against, though his brow does crease a bit as he considers the large amount he still has left to do. And he had just taken a break an hour ago…

Well, whatever—he can do what he wants, as long as he finishes—and makes sure he’s in the frame of the front facing camera, before pressing record.

He stalls for a second — this is silly, isn’t it? Well, he doesn’t have to actually  _ send it _ — before walking back far enough that his head to upper body is in frame. Then he flips the knife out, in the same basic open Corpse had used, before doing a fan rollover and a few shortstop. He doesn’t fumble once, surprising himself a bit, and he smiles. It’s fun, relaxing. He’d forgotten how meditative it is to flip a blade.

He finishes the recording, cuts out the first few seconds of him lingering awkwardly and the last few of him turning off the camera, and sends it off after watching it once through to make sure he’s actually done the tricks properly and not just  _ thought _ he did.

He leaves the phone on a box and goes to grab the tape again. He’s managed to get it back on the rolling part of the dispenser properly when he hears his phone chime again. 

Corpse!: What

Sykkuno laughs. He bets Corpse hadn’t expected that one. 

Sykkuno: ? :)

Corpse!: Who are you.

Sykkuno… isn’t sure how to take that. He's having a hard time taking anything positively right now, with all the stress of moving.

Corpse!: :)

He lets out a breath and tries to settle his stress levels as he responds.

Sykkuno: wdym

Sykkuno: just ur friedly neighborhood sykkuno!

Corpse: LMAO

Corpse: can I call u?

Sykkuno picks at his eyelashes, unsure. He didn’t really have much time to get this all done—but he  _ did _ want to talk to Corpse—and it wasn’t even 2:00 AM yet. He would be playing Rust if he wasn’t packing right now.

Still, they don’t normally talk on the phone, so it’s a little odd. Maybe Corpse is having a hard day and needs someone to talk to? All the stuff Sykkuno needs to do is nothing in the face of that possibility, and he quickly responds.

Sykkuno: sure!

When the phone starts buzzing, though, it isn’t a phone call, but FaceTime. Sykkuno blinks, baffled, but accepts the call.

The screen glitches and then loads, and it takes Sykkuno a moment to figure out what he’s looking at. A chain necklace over a black hoodie with a band name that Sykkuno doesn’t recognize. The frame is a little wobbly, like Corpse is holding the camera himself. 

“Oh! Uh, hi Corpse! How's it going?” 

“Sykkuno,” Corpse breathes out, and he sounds kinda happy, so that’s good. “You’ve been holding out on me,” he accuses playfully.

“I—have?” Sykkuno asks, walking over to the edge of his bed so he can take a seat. His desk chair is stacked with boxes, and there’s a ton of junk spread out on half his bed that he needs to sort through. 

“Yeah,” Corpse says. “You can flip knives?”

“Oh,” Sykkuno laughs, a little. “Well, yeah. I sent you a pic of my collection, right? I used to be really into them.” 

“Really?” Sykkuno has rarely heard Corpse sound  _ eager _ before, but there it is. “And when was this?” 

“Oh, um, I stopped collecting about three years ago. I still take them out of their boxes whenever I move, because I like to look at them sometimes, but yeah.”

Corpse hummed. “Wow. Who’d’ve thought.” 

Sykkuno smiles a bit, shrugging. “Lily  _ might _ remember it from those days, but I only met Rae and the others after my—well, not phase, but. Collecting days, I guess.”

Corpse made a noise of faint interest. “Why’d you stop?”

“Oh,” Sykkuno blinked, “well, this is kinda where the water bill lore started,” he admits. “There was a really bad leak outside my parents house because a pipe burst, and it was the week after I had decided that I could drop almost five hundred dollars on a knife, because it looked really cool. The water bill was, like, over two thousand dollars. They were out of town for a few days, and if I ever actually went outside I would’ve noticed—” he frowned at himself. “Well, anyway. I decided that it was a pretty frivolous thing to spend money on. I couldn’t return the knife, I wasn’t paying rent at the time, and my parents seriously struggled to pay that bill, so…”

“You gave up collecting,” Corpse said.

“Mm, yeah. It was just a hobby—not really important in the, y’know, grand scheme of things.” 


	5. The Party Only Starts When You Walk In

“Sykkuno!” Jordan Fisher squealed, breaking away from the group to rapidly approach the figure leaning against the door frame. Corpse hadn’t even noticed him appear, which was insane, because he’d been looking out for him for the past half hour. Sykkuno jumped as all the attention in the room swung to him, raising his hand in an awkward little wave. “You’re here!”

“I’m—I’m here,” Sykkuno laughed, covering his mouth. “It’s nice to see you. Um, all of you—” 

Corpse watched Jordan rock forward and back, fingers twitching like he was trying to control himself. “Can I hug you?” he asked eagerly. “I’ve been wanting to hug you for forever!” 

Sykkuno glanced around the room, flushing under the attention, but still gave a little nod. “Oh, I—uh—s-sure.” 

Corpse was well aware that Jordan was a married man. He knows that the other man is just a fan of Sykkuno’s, and Sykkuno hadn’t even known who he was until Rae told him. But that didn’t mean him taking all of Sykkuno’s attention from the get, that him being able to hug Sykkuno for the first time  _ before Corpse _ , didn’t make something growl in his chest.

Well, at least Corpse knew that he was fucked up. 

He swallowed, twisting his rings nervously, trying to settle. The hug wasn’t brief—almost twenty seconds—and it was only Rae coming forward that seemed to save Sykkuno. He pulled back, eyes lighting up. “Rae!” he beamed. “H-hi!”

“Sykkuno, hey,” Rae smiled back, bumping his shoulder with hers. Familiar, friendly contact. “Toast isn’t here yet, but come on. There’s someone you need to meet.”

“Someone—?” A second later Sykkuno’s entire face seemed to light up. He looked—fuck if he didn’t look  _ eager. _ “Corpse is here?” 

“I told you I was coming,” Corpse said, amused despite himself. Sykkuno twisted towards his voice automatically, despite the chatter through the room that normally rendered him practically inaudible.

“Corpse!” he exclaimed. He was beaming at him, hand not even covering it. Something in Corpse’s chest warmed at the expression. At how excited Sykkuno was to meet him for the first time. (He hadn’t been this excited with Jordan.) 

*

“I was a little jealous that everyone else got to meet you first,” he admitted shyly. 

“Hmmm. You should’ve let me drive to Vegas with a hoodie.”

Sykkuno laughed. Their eyes caught. “You know what? I should have.” 

Corpse was taken aback by that, even as warmth surged stronger in his chest. Before Sykkuno had always stuttered his way out of a comment like that, or spoken around it. Corpse was a busy guy, he didn’t want to bother him, it was over five hours… 

This was a fantastic change of pace, because now they had met, and didn’t that mean that Sykkuno wished they could have sooner? Didn’t that mean that he somehow wasn’t disappointed with what he had found?


	6. Can You Tie The Cherry Stem?

“Mmhm,” Sykkuno agreed. He had only been humming in affirmations or negatives for the past couple of minutes.

“Are you—eating?” Corpse finally ventures. 

There’s a momentary pause. “Ah, no. Well, yes? I just had a cherry so I was—uh, nevermind. Nope, no food here!”

A cherry? A thought popped into Corpse’s head. “Did you—were you trying to tie the stem with your tongue?”

Sykkuno made a noise of surprise. “Trying? No, no, I was succeeding. It took longer than it used to, though,” he laughed, sounding somewhat embarrassed. “Um, what about—can you, Corpse?” 

“Hm? Oh, yeah actually. I’m—I have a bit of an oral fixation, so...” Corpse grimaced at his word choice. It was true, but the connotations were a little—well, it was Sykkuno. If they didn’t fly straight over his head, he would ignore them. 

“Oh yeah, the floss,” Sykkuno responded, just as Corpse continued, “But, uh, I’m more interested in knowing why you can?”

“It’s a l-little embarrassing,” Sykkuno admitted, but continued without prompting. “When I started out college I heard that it was like a dexterity exercise for your tongue. I wanted to be, um… ready, I guess.”

Corpse blinked. Was Sykkuno saying what Corpse thought he was, or was his mind just jumping to a dirty place? “For?”

“Ah. Y-you’re really gonna make me say—? For, uh, for my first kiss.”

Corpse was a bit surprised. Sykkuno was pretty adorable, he figured girls would’ve tripped all over themselves to date him. Though on second, high school hadn’t been kind to Sykkuno, had it? He’d said, more than once, that he’d never had any friends before meeting Lily. 

“Did it help?”

There was another pause that made Corpse begin to doubt himself. Was he making Sykkuno uncomfortable? He didn’t think the question was too personal—he would ask any of his friends the same, if something like this came up. 

“I, uh, wouldn't know.”

Which, well, yeah, that made sense. “I guess you wouldn’t have any before-after references.” 

“Uhh, that’s not—anyway, do you wanna go loot the grocery store? Maybe we can find you some scrap.”

Why was he changing the subject? What else could he have— _ oh. _ “Sykkuno?”

“Uh-huh?”

“Have you—ever kissed anybody before?”

“Um. Well, the only person I ever kind-of-dated was online and we never—so no.”

“Oh,” Corpse said softly. It wasn’t a  _ bad _ thing, it was just odd. How had  _ Sykkuno _ , of all people, gone twenty-eight years without ever being kissed? He must have had offers. “So would you have to be in a relationship to kiss somebody?”

“Oh. Um, I don’t really have room to be picky, I guess? People aren’t really into me, so—”

“Wait,” Corpse interrupted, “ _ people _ aren’t into you, now? You’re really pushing it, huh Sy?”

“Wha—? I… I know it’s a bit of a meme, Corpse, but I really think that people really aren’t. I mean, I get some DM’s from dudes but they’re normally just saying stuff like ‘I want you to call me daddy,’ and every guy that says they’re ‘into me’ also says they’re straight, so. I don’t know, I—” he trailed off awkwardly. “Sorry? I hoped… it would make you smile, at least.”

“What the fuck, man,” Corpse sighed, forcing himself to relax in the face of Sykkuno’s earnestness. “Just so you know, I wasn’t ‘memeing’ when I was talking to Karl about you being handsome, and I know for a fact that you heard that shit. And the dm situation—it sucks. Some people are freaks. But I’ve also got no doubt you’ve got tons of girls on there messaging you, telling you that they  _ actually _ think you’re cute, probably saying ‘no meme’ fifty times to try and get it through your head.” 

“Oh. I don’t… I don’t check anymore, unless it’s from one of my friends or I want to intensify my bad mood.” 


	7. Running Late

Sykkuno groaned. His phone was screeching at him. He fumbled with it, sliding the bar to stop the alarm. It took him a moment to realize that hadn’t been his alarm tone, but the sound of a phone call—which he had accidentally accepted.

“Hello?” Sykkuno answered, trying to sound awake. Maybe it was a telemarketer and he could just hang up after saying ‘no thanks’ a couple of times. 

“Sykkuno, hey,” Toast said. “Where are you?” 

Sykkuno covered his mouth to stifle a yawn, curling more into his blanket—the only soft thing in this room. 

“Told you ‘m in the closet, Toast. W-why?”

“Uhhh… Sy—Sykkuno?” 

“Huh? C-Corpse? Wasn’t it Toast that was just talking, though?”

There was a sudden laughter, which sounded distinctly like Rae. Sykkuno squinted at his phone. 

“ _ Oh,  _ this is a discord call, not a—w-w _ ait. _ What time is it?”

“4:07,” Rae said. “Sykkuno, were you sleeping?” 

“I—sorry, I’m sorry, it took me forever to fall asleep and I could’ve sworn I set alarms—”

“Yeah? How’s that hard closet floor treating your back?”

“Oh, uh, I mean I haven’t really moved around yet so I’m not sure—it’s probably fine—I’m sure it’s fine!”

“Yeah, yeah, I was just clarifying _for our_ _viewers_ just what you meant when you said you were in the closet. Wouldn’t want that to get misconstrued.”

“Huh? How would that—oh Jesus, you’re live right now? I’m supposed to be—! Um. Sorry, sorry, I’m really sorry guys, I’ll—I’m getting up! Or—did you already get a fill? Should I still come?”

Sykkuno had said, more than once, that he was always nervous, but half-asleep and caught out live in front of thousands of people, it was more evident than ever. ‘In the closet,’ was probably one of the worst phrases that could’ve fallen out of his mouth. It was going to be taken  _ so _ out of context, even with Toast’s clarification. And there was zero doubt it would be clipped, because if Corpse had never heard Sykkuno sound so sleep-rumpled and groggy, the viewers hadn’t, either. 

“YES! Come!” Rae exclaimed.

“If you want,” Toast returned sharply, before his tone went calm and gentled slightly, now clearly directed at Sykkuno. “We haven’t asked anyone to fill yet, so we can run a few with nine while you grab coffee. Or just take the day off and work on moving shit. Either way’s fine.”

“I—ummm—” Sykkuno took an audible breath. “Yeah, o-okay. I’ll, um, it’ll probably be half an hour—is that still—?”

“Sounds good to me,” Corpse interjected. 

“Yeah, get your coffee and something to eat, Sykkuno! We’ll play soon!” Rae encouraged. 


	8. Get Hyped

“I did it,” Corpse breathed, eyes going wide. “I… did it.”

“You did it,” Sykkuno affirmed, bumping their shoulders together.

“Holy shit,” Corpse breathed, staring down at the number on his phone. It was a little incomprehensible. He couldn’t—he couldn’t… first his single got five million listens in the first day. _The first_ _day._ Now his newly released album was trending at #5 in the U.S. With no label backing him. “Holy fucking shit.”

Sykkuno laughed, gently setting a hand on top of his. Corpse looked up from his phone, blinking a bit dumbly at the other man as his mind stuttered. This was a lot. A lot to process. A lot to  _ feel. _

“Congratulations, Corpse,” Sykkuno murmured.

And that—that was nice. Corpse had never had anybody around at a moment like this before. He’d always been alone in his house, staring at an impossible number, hopelessly, stupidly grateful to his fans and disbelieving that he had actually hit another milestone. That he was lucky enough to have made it in a big way, and that he was somehow still trending upwards. 

“Thanks,” Corpse breathed, and Sykkuno looked between his eyes, gauging— _ something _ —before pulling him in for a hug. Corpse went readily, willingly, and exhaled into the other man's neck even as his heart continued to race faster and faster. His hands were shaking hard. The adrenaline rushing through him was insane. He couldn’t believe—he had done it. With a crappy mic, from his crappy apartment, with a pirated audio-production software… holy fucking  _ shit. _

“I’m happy for you,” Sykkuno murmured, and Corpse clenched into the back of his hoodie, pressing his face harder into his shoulder. He felt like he was about to cry, and burst out laughing, and shake apart. He could probably fly right now, could probably leap across rooftops, could probably do just about anything.

Sykkuno pulled back eventually, and it took a moment for Corpse to realize that he was bouncing on his toes like an overly-excited toddler. But he couldn’t help it, and Sykkuno’s smile was fond and amused and so, so warm. 

“I did it,” Corpse said one more time, probably very stupidly, and Sykkuno laughed, a sound of pure, sweet joy. 

“You did, Corpse. You did amazing! I’m always proud of you, but this is—” the man blinked, and then his nose scrunched up cutely. “Extra awesome. Sorry, I lost my words,” he laughed at himself. 

And Corpse—really, he didn’t feel like he could take any more joy at the moment. He was about to spontaneously combust into mother fucking sparkles. His insides felt weird, fizzing and bubbly, like a glass of champagne.  _ Buoyant, _ Corpse recalled the word abruptly. He was  _ buoyant. _

Sykkuno giggled at whatever his face was doing, and Corpse’s eyes locked in on the fact that Sykkuno was smiling without covering his mouth. He had done that before, too, but Corpse’s mind was scrambled, and now he was hyper-fixating on it. His lips, his white teeth, his lips, his nice eyes, his lips.

Corpse was giddy and stupid, high on accomplishment and Sykkuno’s laughter, and he leaned forward abruptly. Basically tipped forward, really, and it was probably startling from Sykkuno’s side of things—and then it  _ definitely was _ , because he was pressing his lips to his friends, Sykkuno had called them  _ close friends _ , and the fizzing feeling in his chest was making him dizzy. 

There was a moment of stillness, of surprise, and then Sykkuno’s hand moved to gently cradle his face, and briefly, his lips moved against Corpse’s. Then he pulled back, and blinked slowly, and Corpse couldn’t believe himself. Couldn’t believe that the pretty flush spilling over Sykkuno’s cheeks was real. 

It was a good time to spiral into panic, probably, but Sykkuno—he didn’t look  _ mad. _ Just surprised, and confused.

“Um,” he said softly. “C-Corpse?”

“Sorry,” Corpse blurted, because that was probably the only appropriate response, and he wasn’t  _ that _ far gone even though he kind of was. “I—you just—and—fuck. I’ve,” he huffed a laugh, slightly hysterical. “I’ve never had anyone around when I got news like this. I didn’t mean to—to jump you, Sy. Sykkuno,” he corrected.

“You can call me Sy,” Sykkuno addressed first, eyes tracing over his features, like he was looking for some secret to make itself clear to him. “And you don’t—you don’t need to apologize, Corpse. You, uh, you got excited. You got great news! I’m sure if anyone else was around, you would’ve—w-with them.” 

Corpse blinked. The smile on Sykkuno’s face looked just a smidge off. “I—no I wouldn’t of,” he said, in a fit of awful, stupid honestly. 

“Eh?” 

“Just—I’m—I’m hyped, Sykkuno. I’m so fucking—I don’t know. Happy, shocked, overwhelmed—jesus. But that’s not—I mean, it’s not like that was a new, um, urge, just one that I didn’t… contain. For once.”

Holy fuck, that was going to ruin everything. Sykkuno’s mouth had dropped open, a bit, his eyes gone wide.

“You…  _ really? _ ” The other man squeaked, before clearing his throat. “Why, though?”

Corpse felt his gaze intensify, all his focus zeroing in on Sykkuno as he took a step closer. Grabbed his friend's shoulders, gazed into his eyes seriously. “‘Cause people are into you, Sy.” His throat felt tight. His hands were trembling harder than ever, and he clenched down, a bit, on Sykkuno’s shoulders. Held his gaze. Cleared his throat. “Because—I am.” 

“ _ Oh _ ,” Sykkuno said softly, like this was some grand revelation. He blinked at Corpse, and then a hand rose up, gently settling over his own. A thumb stroked across his knuckles. Sykkuno tipped him a smile, small and shy. “We can—try that again. If you wanted?” the other man offered.

Corpse’s own mouth dropped open, a bit, and before he could overthink the invitation, the  _ situation, _ he pressed forward. Sykkuno’s mouth was soft and warm. It moved against his own slowly, and fingers traced from the bottom of his jaw up to cheekbone. Gently tucked stray curls behind his ear, and went down to the back of his neck. Wandering, unsure, but so very intimate and soothing. 

Corpse’s own hands were still clenched uselessly around Sykkuno’s shoulders, and he slowly loosened his grip, letting his thumb drag across a sharp collarbone as the other wandered to the back of Sykkuno’s hair. It was smooth and silky under his hands. He kind of wanted to tug it, just to see how the other man would react. If he would gasp, would open his mouth for him, would pull his own in revenge _... _

They parted for air, and Corpse hummed. Sykkuno did, too, which made him smirk a bit as he opened his eyes to catch the other man’s gaze.

Sykkuno was looking at his mouth, sucking his bottom lip into his own while doing so. Corpse resisted the urge to pull him back in just barely.

“That was nice,” he said softly. 

“Yeah,” Corpse said hoarsely. “Very nice.”

Brown eyes flicked up to catch his gaze. Held it, for a moment, and then Sykkuno burst out into a cute, if abrupt, giggle. 

“W-what?” Corpse asked, voice lilting a bit in mirth. Fuck, but Sykkuno was adorable.

“Nothing. Just—I think I deserve congratulations, too. Or you deserve more?”

Corpse blinked. “You liked it that much?” he asked, and that came out entirely wrong, but at least he sounded shocked rather than cocky. Sykkuno giggled again.

“I—yeah, I did,” he said, catching one of Corpse’s hands in his own and squeezing lightly. “Pretty sure I just got the best first kiss ever.”

**Author's Note:**

> A collection of discontinued scenes _that will not be continued_. Don't ask for more. If you enjoyed, feel free to let me know in the comments. I rarely have the energy to respond but reading them always improve my day. 🖤 💚


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